Another reading group book crashes and burns. I was so bored. I got to page 100 or so and just skim read to end. It was just Buffalo Bill did this and then he did that. And the modern day characters were unlikeable and uninteresting. Just No. At least my fellow reading group members agreed on this. Some of them are really big fans of John Boyne but even they did not like this book. So you might want to try a different book of his than this one if you are unfamiliar with him. ( )

READ IN ENGLISH

I'm a big fan of John Boyne, and this was one of the last books I hadn't read yet. So, I didn't mind the fact I really don't like cowboys and just started reading.

Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed cause it turned out that I minded the cowboys after all. It was not bad, but it just couldn't keep me interested. Personaly, not my best John Boyne book. ( )

Verhaal van Buffalo Bill, verteld door zijn achterkleinkind aan zijn zoon. De jongen wordt er gek van : zijn vader vertelt alleen maar heroische verhalen van zijn overgrootvader, doet zelf niets aan zijn leven en is niet geinteresseerd in dat van zijn zoon, denkt hij. Hij vlucht naar Japan waar hij de mooie Hitoma ontmoet. Zij blijkt de liefde van zijn leven waar hij jaren later, na elkaar kwijtgeraakt te zijn, mee trouwt. Zijn relatie met zijn vader blijf ambivalent. Als zijn vader hem schrijft dat zijn dagen zijn geteld, vliegt hij onmiddellijk naar huis in London. Daar blijkt dat zijn vader hem nodig heeft om een comboy road show op te zetten, zoals Buffalo Bill ooit heeft gedaan. De zoon weigert en vliegt terug naar Japan, waar zijn liefde niet op hem gewacht heeft. Hij vindt haar weer in Parijs waar ze trouwen.
Ik lees graag van Boyd, dit is het vierde boek dat ik van hem lees, maar ik vind het ook het minste. Boeit minder. De hoofdpersonnage, William Cody, de zoon, spreekt me niet zo aan. Het blijft allemaal wat afstandelijk, met weinig emoties. ( )

William Cody is the great-grandson of Buffalo Bill Cody and has been raised by his elderly father Isaac who seems to relate to his child solely through tales of their ancestor. William, who it seems wants a parent not a storyteller, struggles with his relationship towards father and the long shadow of his great-grandfather and eventually leaves their London home for pastures new. In Kyoto he meets and falls in love with Hitomi Naoyuki and starts to make a name for himself as a journalist and writer but Isaac it seems has other plans…I could go on but I wouldn’t want to spoil the story and there is so much more to it than just William and Isaac’s tale. All the way through their story is interspersed with episodes from the life of Buffalo Bill, and later in the book William’s great-grandmother, although these passages did feel a little like they were a bit of a last minute add-on to me.

Recently I have avoided books that call themselves “fiction” as I find that I am becoming increasingly weary of the almost uninterrupted misery that seems to be de rigueur at the moment but when a free copy was pressed into my hand by the lovely folks at Transworld I thought I would give it a go. It did after all have a picture of a gun on the front and I am a boy but I have to admit my expectations were not high.

First off this is not a western, this is fiction. Despite the presence of the excellent Buffalo Bill stories with their scenes action and descriptions of life on the frontier, which made me want to go out and find a non-fiction book about the period, most of what takes place during the 459 pages is a family drama complete with the usual conflicts, misunderstanding, tragedies and moments of comedy and also, within these pages are discussions of subjects such as truth and fiction, the importance of storytelling, of love, of freedom and family. The characters too are well drawn, even Buffalo Bill has depths I was not expecting and William Cody, while far from being a fully sympathetic character is believable and I found myself agreeing with him on one page and wanting to shout at him for being a hypocritical, self obsessed fool on another.

In conclusion then…I was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn’t say it was a perfect book, the story of Williams grandmother seemed rushed and added last minute and I did not quite get the point of the whole “die in England” prophecy part (maybe I missed something?), but then all the way through and for various reasons, I was subconsciously comparing this novel with the work of Cormac McCarthy and Haruki Murakami and despite John Boyne’s many strengths, that was never going to end well! It was however a good read and will, one day, inspire me to pick up another but probably “Mutiny on the Bounty” rather than “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”. ( )